Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Ruth Rhoden, co-host of KCUR's Just Jazz show for 23 years, has died. Here's her obituary. This video captures much of her sensibility.

*From Alaadeen's (public) Facebook account on July 11: Greetings to all of our friends and loved ones. Some of you may know that Alaadeen has been engaged in a major battle with cancer for the last few months. We are asking you to join in thru prayer and and by sending all of the positive energy and love you have to help honor his fight. Alaadeen has shared that he still has work to do! We will keep you posted. Peace.

*Hermon Mehari placed second in the jazz improvisation competition of the International Trumpet Guild. His misspelled name is on the list of winners here. Mehari is pictured with the other finalists on page 9 of a PDF. (Tip and text courtesy of KCJazzLark.)

*While poking around at the American Jazz Museum's site I discovered that discounted tickets to the forthcoming Rhythm & Ribs Festival are on sale now.

*From Chris Ellman: The newly established Kansas City School of Indian Arts would like to invite you to our first event in August. Sandip Burman, an established Indian Classical Musician will be offering two Master Classes on Tabla, Sitar, and Voice. I've attended several of Mr. Burman's Master Classes; this is a wonderful opportunity to discover how Indian Classical Music can integrate with Western Music. All musicians are welcome. Space is limited; reserve your seat soon. Specific date/time to follow. For details regarding location, date/time, and cost, please contact Chris Ellman at chris@kcschoolofindianarts.org or (913) 568-8415.

*From a press release: Jardine’s Restaurant,Kansas City’s preeminent jazz venue, will be jumping to the sounds of The Wild Women of Jazz, along with special guests Chris Burnett (saxophone), Stan Kessler (trumpet), Jason Goudeau (trombone), Greg Richtor (keyboards) and others as they host a very special benefit concert in support of Kansas City Youth Jazz.

*From Chris Burnett: Just wanted to let you know that the KC Youth Jazz Program's Reno Band (Mr. Brady's top group) and the 12:30 Combo that I direct will be performing at the Kansas Bandmasters Convention in Wichita next Friday. I think this is pretty cool, particularly for the young kids that I teach there... Learning how to improvise is what the 12:30 Combo is about.